For the first time, the yearly masterclasses for infectious disease fellows in the Netherlands are extended with online infectious diseases [e]-courses from Health[e]Foundation. These masterclasses cover three disease topics: HIV, tuberculosis and hepatitis.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the fellows requested a different format of their yearly masterclasses and welcomed a combination of onsite with online learning. For the online part, a subset of Health[e]Foundation’s course curriculum was selected by facilitators Andy Hoepelman and Marc van der Valk.
A total of 35 motivated fellows who subscribed for the face-to-face workshops on HIV which took place in Utrecht on 8 September and 6 October started their e-learning experience in early September. In total, 15 modules out of the 25 modules of the HIV[e]Education [e]-course were selected for this group, and individual access was provided prior to and in preparation for the masterclass workshops.
Overall, the feedback has been positive: the modules are considered good quality; Short pieces of text, written by national and international experts in the field, were accompanied by relevant illustrations. Since two modules had duplicated material, the advice has been to adjust these modules; valuable feedback which will be shared with the corresponding authors.
Subsequent masterclasses on tuberculosis and hepatitis are planned on 3 November and 12 January. These masterclasses will be linked with the TB[e]Education and Hepatitis[e]Education [e]-courses. A total of 61 fellows and specialized nurses have subscribed to the various infectious disease topics. Once the masterclasses are completed, this new format will be evaluated. The next step will be that fellows not only receive accreditation for the onsite classes, but for the online part of the courses as well!